Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - The time for moral victories is over for the Wawasee girls basketball team. Four days removed from an upset win over NorthWood, the Warriors had a chance to turn Tuesday night's 36-33 loss to Columbia City into a statement game.
Wawasee committed 10 turnovers and shot 3 of 14 from the field in a first half dominated by the Eagles deliberate offense.
With the Warriors' number of possessions limited, Wawasee struggled to develop offensive continuity.
Senior Rachel Canen and junior Megan Walker exploited a hole in Columbia City's defense early in the first quarter, driving past slow-footed defenders for easy layups.
Columbia City head coach Wayne Krueger, in his 29th year at the helm, called a timeout with 5:43 left in the first quarter to make defensive adjustments.
For the rest of the first half, the Warriors connected on just one field goal attempt, a three pointer by Canen in the second quarter.
Despite their poor play, the Warriors used another Canen three pointer with 7:06 left in the game and a strong drive and finish by Canen as bookends to a 13-0 Wawasee run that tied the contest at 31-31 with 2:01 left in the game.
The Warriors defense was as inpenetrable as a brick wall holding the Eagles scoreless for most of the fourth quarter.
Wawasee's Tiffany Fick forced Krueger into another timeout moments earlier when Kayln Lantz found the 5-foot-10 junior for a turnaround jumper in the lane that led to an old-fashioned three-point play, drawing the score to within two, at 31-29.
Columbia City regained the lead for good with 1:46 remaining on an Ashley Rhoades layup and extended the lead to three points on a Carly Rohrer free throw with a minute left.
Rohrer kept the game to one possession when she missed the front end of a one-and-one chance with 37.6 left.
Canen missed on two consecutive three-point tries but on the second attempt, Fick, who finished with eight rebounds, was there for the offensive rebound.
Fick went to the line with 20.1 seconds left in the game but failed to connect on the one-and-one opportunity. Lantz grabbed Fick's miss and called a timeout as she was forced out of bounds.
Once more, Canen launched a three pointer but alertly grabbed her own miss and drew a blocking foul on Columbia City's Angie Roy. The 5-7 guard was true on both attempts to cut the Eagles' lead to 34-33 with 7.4 seconds left.
Krueger was forced to burn his final timeout of the night as the Eagles were unable to inbound the ball. Wawasee's Shawn Knafel guarded the inbounds and used her lanky 6-0 frame to wreak havoc on Columbia City's inbounds attempts.
The Eagles narrowly avoided a five-second call when Roy snaked a pass to Rhoades at half court. Rhoades and Rohrer got behind the Warrior defense and Rhoades sent an outlet pass to her teammate for an uncontested layup as time expired.
While the Warriors showed resolve in their near comeback, Wawasee head coach Kem Zolman has grown weary of moral victories and lessons learned.
"This youth crud, we've got to get rid of that excuse. It's too much of a crutch," said Zolman of his team that hosts just one senior on its roster.
While youth was served in the form of Knafel, sophomore Jessie Wolf and Fick, the fact that this same squad beat NorthWood and held a five-point halftime lead against Warsaw played just one solid quarter bothers Zolman.
"When you come out to play basketball, you have to come out and play basketball from the word go," said Zolman of his team's lethargic play for the first 24 minutes. "When you put on the uniform, you have to be ready to play."
Canen led the Warriors in scoring with 14 points while Wolf was big on the boards, scoring four points and hauling in 10 rebounds. Fick, who fought through double teams most of the night, finished with eight points and five rebounds.
The Warriors, 6-7 overall, return to Northern Lakes Conference play when they travel to Elkhart Memorial for a 2:30 p.m. tipoff Saturday.
COLUMBIA CITY 36, WAWASEE 33
Col. City 17 16 20 9 - 62
Wawasee 18 19 15 26 - 78
Col. City FG FT R S Pts.
*Hoppe 2-4 1-1 5 1 5
*Roy 2-10 0-0 5 5 5
*Rhoades 5-11 0-2 5 2 10
*Hicks 4-12 2-2 2 2 11
*Rethlake 0-3 2-4 3 0 2
Rohrer 1-1 1-3 2 1 3
Totals 14-41 6-12 22 11 36
Wawasee FG FT R S Pts.
*Lantz 0-5 0-0 2 0 0
*Walker 3-5 0-0 0 1 8
*Canen 5-13 2-2 2 1 14
*Wolf 0-2 4-4 10 1 4
*Fick 2-6 1-2 8 0 5
Short 0-3 0-0 0 1 0
Knafel 1-3 0-0 3 1 2
Totals 11-37 7-8 25 5 33
Three-point goals - Fairfield 4-12 (Burkholder 3-4, Lemler 1-3, E. Miller 0-2, Hostetler 0-1, Snider 0-1, Hildenbrand 0-1), Wawasee 4-10 (Lantz 2-4, Kaiser 1-3, Conrad 1-3). Turnovers - Fairfield 17, Wawasee 6. Fouls - Fairfield 17, Wawasee 14 . Fouled out - None.
JV - Columbia City 29, Wawasee 7
Wawasee Scoring - Heather Tilton 3, Erin Wallace 2, Cahterine Giltner 2
